10 Tips How To Make Children Brush Their Teeth

Having a toddler is a great experience but it's also the most challenging stage of a child's life for most moms. One patience-tester activity is to make our children brush their teeth and not turn it to a traumatic experience. Admittedly, I had a hard time going through the stage of making it a habit for my toddler to brush his teeth.

But I'm happy to share to all of you that we overcame the stage when persuasion and nagging to brush their teeth. Keep in mind that the reason why we want them to learn oral hygiene is because it's an important part of their whole physical well-being.

Tips To Make Children Brush Their Teeth

1. Start Early. As soon as their first tooth shows, clean it with cloth and water after eating or drinking milk. I use the gauze type. They say babies who are used to have their teeth cleaned are easier to train to this oral hygiene.

2. Be Consistent. Establish the habit and routineso they would know what to expect after meals. Anything done consistently creates a habit or regular reminder that an activity should be done regularly.

3. Be A Good Role Model. You could not effectively teach your children something you don't do yourself. Show your children that you're diligently brushing your teeth after meals and show them the right way to do it. Brush up and down, around and around.

4. Select The Correct Toothpaste - It's been said that fluoride in toothpaste is not good for younger children. Some say it's ok. So whether you are for or against, choose the right one for your children. There are available flavored toothpaste for younger children in the market. The important thing is it's flavored. A flavored toothpaste and one with cartoon characters they recognize is a great way to encourage them to brush their teeth.

5. Choose The Right Toothbrush. Each stage of childhood has a corresponding type of toothbrush. As mentioned earlier, I started with cloth, then on to rubber bristles that you insert in your finger, then toothbrush with very soft bristles then graduating to the kid-sized durable toothbrush. I buy those with cartoon character, those with attractive colors and cute designs.

6. Make It Fun. Kids love doing something that's fun! To encourage them into doing something regularly, injecting fun is important. We brush our teeth together as a family. Look at ourselves in the mirror. We make funny faces and sounds. If you make brushing teeth a fun time, children would look forward to doing it with you. No more running around the house to catch them. No more tantrums. No more force. No more loud cries! :)

7. Play Videos of Children's Character That Teaches This tip is one that definitely helped me a lot in teaching my toddler to regularly brush his teeth. I also did this technique with my older son when he was also younger. The videos that we play each time they brush their teeth are the following:

8. Reward System. This worked when my eldest was around 4 to 6 year old because he has a clearer understanding of what reward he wants. If your children brush their teeth without tantrums and almost automatically, give them points. Collect the points and at the end of the week they could exchange them to something that they really want.

9. Visit The Dentist. Some parents scare the children by telling them, "If you don't do this or that, we'll go to the dentist!" That's actually discouraged because they develop fear for a person whose profession is actually to take care of children's and adults' teeth and gums clean and healthy. The first visit of children to the dentist was a pedia dentist clinic where walls were decorated to look like a play room. Their dental chair were also small, pink for the girls and blue for the boys. After the check up, treats were given to kids. As much as possible make every dentist visit a pleasant experience for them.

10. Be Generous with Praise . Lastly, with or without the physical rewards, one of the most important reward they could receive is our praise. Let's be generous with praise when they've done something right, when they brushed their teeth without us reminding them or when they're eager to show you that they can do it by themselves. Praise is important for them, encouraging words and hugs go a long way.

How's your oral hygiene training? Did it go smooth or you struggled? What techniques were effective and which were not?

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Struggle siya with my little boy and he makes up the most creative excuse to not brush his teeth. But then I show him pics of black teeth (eeewww) and how germs would love to stay there, kaya he complies naman haha

Nice chatting with you, sis. I thought you were going to the panagbenga?

Honestly, it was a struggle and a lot of crying too @disqus_irdOYPBa4b:disqus with my toddler before. That's why I came up with these few simple tips. these were what I did to make the little one brush his teeth. Now he's doing it with enthusiasm and self-initiated pa. :) My 9yo kasi we didn't have that much problems, he was easier to train. :)

You know that my SIL's son is now 13mos old and he has 6 baby tooth already. I said to my SIL if he's brushing his teeth already, she said "now?!" - nawindang ako! With my kids, the moment those baby tooth come out, I immediately show them how to brush their teeth. Even w/o paste. Just playing along ba. And now, both of them are even reminding me that I forgot to brush their teeth hehehe!

So far okay naman. My son loves to brush his teeth. Un lang playful sya so mahirap ibrush thoroughly. He wants to gargle often, hehe. So I bought dental floss for kids to clean un hindi maalis ng brush then I use his lampin to wipe his teeth. Minsan gusto nya like this morning but most of the times ayaw. Hehe.

thanks for sharing, mommy louise. thankfully, i very rarely have a hard time with my one year old toddler. minsan lang pag may sumpong. LOL! we started early too. by the way, thanks for sharing the videos. i showed it to my baby and he loved watching it. :-)

My preschooler brushes her teeth by herself. She prefers it that way but doesn't always get it done right. What I want for her now is to brush the right way. These are great tips to follow for toddlers. -jellybelly

my kids brush their kids on their own. i agree that we should be a role model on brushing. my youngest tho who is already 1 year haven't started brushing (oops!). i just clean his mouth and tongue using white cloth.

I have been looking for the Pediatric Dentist in town who can help me on my daughter who has some phobia on her teeth? I've read good thoughts from http://www.childrendentists.com/ but I wanted to know more deeper about it and seek help on this matter.

Hello, I'm Louise

Welcome to my blog! I write about my practical life as a mother of three talented and handsome boys, as an ex-single mom and now a happily married woman to my long-time best friend and soulmate, as a former corporate marketing specialist, and as a life adventurer! Welcome to Mommy Practicality!

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